Denmark and the United States remain at odds over the future of Greenland despite high-level talks in Washington, with Copenhagen acknowledging a “fundamental disagreement” even as both sides agreed to establish a working group to manage tensions over Arctic security.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said discussions with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had failed to shift Washington’s position on Greenland, the vast semi-autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark that US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said should come under American ownership.
“We didn’t manage to change the American position,” Rasmussen told reporters outside Denmark’s embassy in Washington DC after Wednesday’s meeting, which he attended alongside Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt. He said the newly agreed working group should focus on addressing US security concerns while “respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark”.
Those red lines, Danish and Greenlandic officials have stressed, include sovereignty and the principle that Greenland is not for sale. Copenhagen has also warned that talk of taking the island by force is reckless and incompatible with relations between allies.
The dispute has been reignited by Trump’s public insistence that Greenland is essential to US national defence because of its strategic Arctic location and rich deposits of critical minerals. Just hours before the Washington talks, Trump wrote on social media that US ownership of Greenland was “vital” to the “Golden Dome” missile defence system his administration is proposing, arguing that control of the island would prevent rivals such as Russia or China from gaining a foothold in the region.
Greenland, which lies between North America and Europe, already hosts a key US military installation, the Pituffik Space Base, and has long been a focal point of Arctic geopolitics. Danish and Greenlandic leaders say existing defence arrangements, including cooperation within NATO, are sufficient to manage security risks without any change in sovereignty.
While the diplomatic standoff continues, Denmark has moved to underline its commitment to Arctic defence. In Copenhagen, Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen announced an increase in Denmark’s military presence and exercise activity in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, carried out “in close co-operation with our allies”.
Poulsen said the decision reflected a deteriorating and unpredictable security environment. “No one can predict what will happen tomorrow,” he said, adding that aircraft, naval vessels and soldiers would be deployed in and around Greenland in the coming period, including forces from other NATO allies.
Although Poulsen declined to name the countries involved, saying allies would announce their own participation, several governments quickly confirmed deployments. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on X that officers from the Swedish Armed Forces had arrived in Greenland as part of a multinational group preparing activities under Denmark’s Operation Arctic Endurance exercise.
Norway’s Defence Minister Tore O Sandvik told newspaper VG that two Norwegian military personnel would be sent to Greenland to map out further cooperation with allies. Germany’s government and defence ministry separately announced that 13 German soldiers would arrive on Thursday local time for a reconnaissance mission requested by Denmark, running until Saturday.
According to Berlin, the mission aims to explore possible military contributions to strengthening regional security, including options such as maritime surveillance. The announcements highlight growing European concern about Arctic stability as climate change opens new shipping routes and intensifies competition over resources.
Trump, however, has framed the issue in terms of alliance strength, arguing that NATO itself would become “far more formidable and effective” if Greenland were in US hands. His comments have unsettled European capitals, where officials worry that talk of territorial acquisition undermines the principles the alliance is meant to defend.
Rasmussen said Denmark and Greenland had originally sought talks with Rubio alone, hoping that a traditional foreign ministers’ meeting could help defuse the crisis between two NATO allies. Instead, Vance — who visited a US base in Greenland in March — insisted on joining and hosted the meeting at the White House, a move Danish officials acknowledged underscored how seriously Washington views the issue.
Despite the lack of progress on sovereignty, Rasmussen said the creation of a working group offered a channel to keep dialogue open and avoid escalation. “We disagree fundamentally,” he said, “but we are allies, and allies must be able to talk through even the most difficult questions.”
For now, Greenland’s status remains unchanged, but the combination of heated rhetoric from Washington and a visible build-up of allied military activity in the Arctic suggests the issue will remain a test of transatlantic unity — and of how far strategic rivalry is reshaping the politics of the far north.
